While public school teachers are patting themselves on the backs at these rallies about giving the “best quality education” to America’s children, the numbers simply don’t add up.
The United States has fallen from top of the class to average in world education rankings, said a report Tuesday that warned of US economic losses from the trend.
The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.Granted, the blame for such embarrassingly bad numbers can’t be dumped solely on teachers, but continuing to call our education system the best isn’t wise unless they believe we’re all as stupid as the kids they teach.
Bob Parks is a is a member/writer of the National Advisory Council of Project 21. Bob’s websites are Black & Right and youtube.com/BlackAndRight
